With all of the officially announced changes to emblems and raid sizes, it seems like the day of 25-man dominance is nearly over. Sure, from what we know, 25-man raids will continue to provide the best path to getting fully geared the most quickly. However, you will no longer be forced to raid 25-man to get your various best-in-slot gear.

I've always been a bit agnostic when it comes to raid size. I tend to do both versions, because I want to put out the best performance possible for my raid and friends. In the current game, the best performances comes from 25-man gear. Even if you have the one or two best-in-slot pieces in 10-man fights, I don't think anyone can realistically claim 10-man gear is as effective as 25-man kits.

Sure, I'm open to the argument that 25-man raids are more difficult to organize, but I'm not exactly sure when "dealing with a pain in the butt" became a virtue in something that's supposed to be fun. Even more, it's not like every single person in that 25-man raid is dealing with the the same organizational pain. That's the job of the raid leaders.

With those factors being acknowledged, I've always preferred to rock out with a handful of friends and truly have a good time. I still do 25-man raids for the gear and prestige, but it is kind of a bummer to be forced into the larger raids. So, at the end of the day, I'm fairly pleased that 10-man and 25-man raiders are going to be treated with a level of equality.

But it does mean that now's a great time to upgrade your raid to a 25-man group if you're going to do so. By the time Cataclysm hits, I don't suspect many raiders will be yearning to start a new large-scale raid. It's more likely that 25-man raids will break down to 10-man raids than vice versa. If you don't get your 25-man raid started now, you might miss your chance. So, let's talk about how to upgrade your raid from 10 to 25.

The first thing to start thinking about when you're going from 10-man to 25-man is where you're going to get the extra 15 people. Sounds simple, right? It gets a little more complex than that.

Most 10-man raids run with two tanks, two full-time healers and one hybrid healer who swings back and forth between DPS and healing. Twenty-five-man raids, however, rock out with two full-time tanks, one hybrid tank and up to a half-dozen healers. You probably don't have to worry too much about finding another tank -- do you really think you can grab 15 random players from somewhere and not get a death knight, warrior or paladin? While I'm not a big fan of forcing people to take a role they don't want, chances are someone will be okay with the occasional off-tanking.

Healers could be an issue, because you're doubling the number of folks in your healer corps. And you can't just assume that you're going to find three people who want to heal out of 15. Therefore, healers are going to be one of the fundamental dynamics that determines how you're going to find those extra dozen or so raid players.

If you're in a successful 10-man raid, you basically have three options. You can recruit PUGs into raid members, co-raid with another group or merge with another group.

Recruiting PUGs into raid members is probably the option most people would prefer. By simply recruiting new raid members, your existing raid gets to keep its identity, expand its own success and maintain complete control of your raid rules. You don't have to alter your standard operating procedure, your loot rules or even your raid times. After all, you're allowing individual raid members to join you once they've been accepted.

The downside revolves around whether you have your raid's core already supplied. If you recruit 10 DPS who are standing around the raid pad waiting for healers, you're going to be in for a rough time. But if your core 10-man raiders supply mostly enough healing, mostly enough DPS and enough tanks, then go out and find a couple healers first. Don't worry about the DPS until you have the heals.

And then, with a core raid of three tanks, a half-dozen healers and a half-dozen DPS, go out and grab PUGs. Advertise on the official forums, in trade and stroll around the raid browser. You should set all of your expectations and policies up front -- these are your loot rules, there are your requirements, these are your expectations. If you're going to use GearScore or achievements as a gauge of someone's abilities, say that up front too.

You should be able to build a raid relatively quick like this on most servers. After you've conducted your raid that evening, talk to skillful performers about becoming a more permanent member of your raid. If you're a guild-based raid, maybe ask them to join the raid.

The other down side to this method is that it takes time. You're constantly picking and choosing the best players, recruiting and adding on to your existing core. It can take a while, and it can be frustrating to manage. It can be upsetting to raid members, also, as some of their personal favorites are turned aside because they don't meet the raid leader's muster. But still, if you're trying to maintain control of your raid, then this might be your best method.

We can talk about co-raids and merging raids in the same breath because there's mostly administrative differences between the two. When I hear people talk about co-raids, I usually picture a raid that comes together with half the people form one guild and half the people in the other guild. When I hear folks discussed merged raids, then I think about two groups of people, coming together and forming one group.

Whichever of these two methods you choose (merging into one guild or staying separate), you will have to make compromises. Who gets to raid lead? Whose loot rules do you use? Who gets to be the main tank? What happens to tokens when they drop? What times are the raids?

This becomes a matter of negotiation. Negotiation is a common and frequent issue in politics, business and real life. But something about video game negotiation just drives people bonkers. Take your time; make sure you get it right. Even if you are the sole dictator of your raid group, with god-given authority, you still need to methodically and repeated communicate everything to your team. Why? Because you'll turn around and find out ... your team isn't there.

Merging and co-raiding will cause you to lose some raid members. It almost always happens. Raid schedules don't line up, individuals don't like the terms, folks are upset at the lost of identity. The list can go on forever. And while it's totally a bummer, it's also just the nature of the beast. When you're bringing two disparate groups of people together into one group, you're going to lose some. You need to make sure that you're communicating every aspect and that the end goal will be worth your time.

Next week, we'll talk about some of the fine points you should be sure to settle when you're merging groups. These little details can be quite a headache later, if you're not careful. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

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Filed under: Ready Check (Raiding)